SHY HERON
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
WINTER 2024
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
WINTER 2024
Winter in the Skagit Valley is a wonderful time for birding, and people from near and far come to watch the stars of the show: the swans, snow geese, and bald eagles. However, scattered amongst the fields and waterways, our resident great blue herons still provide a constant source of joy, like a tried-and-true friend. We never tire of seeing these majestic herons and try never to take their presence for granted. This long and narrow format makes the heron seem to be hiding behind the frame—exhibiting a seemingly shy personality. The style of this particular painting was inspired by a pair of painted cedar fusuma (sliding doors) by Rinpa artist Watanabe Shiko. Shiko simply painted directly on the wooden doors at Daikaku-ji in Kyoto, and so I have painted my heron in a similar fashion, isolated but in harmony with the beauty of the wood grain. The heron’s design was inspired by Northwest Coast Native, Celtic, and Japanese art traditions. I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods. I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.
DIMENSIONS: HEIGHT: 31 ½ inches
WIDTH: 10 ½ inches
PRICE $350--SOLD
DIMENSIONS: HEIGHT: 31 ½ inches
WIDTH: 10 ½ inches
PRICE $350--SOLD